1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for inspecting a quality of a core material for an electrophotographic ferrite carrier which is used together with a toner to be used in an electrophotographic developing device such as a copying machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
A core material for an electrophotographic ferrite carrier is a ferrite particle having a shape represented by an approximately sphere, and is handled as a ferrite powder which is gathered ferrite particles. Accordingly, an evaluation method applied to a powder has been widely applied to the quality evaluation method of the core material.
To provide a carrier for an electrophotographic developer which enables to prevent the carrier scattering and to give a high-grade picture quality, and the electrophotographic developer using the carrier, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-296846) discloses to adopt the carrier for the electrophotographic developer comprising that a volume median diameter (D50) of spherical core materials of a magnetic carrier is 25 to 45 μm; an average void size of carrier particles is 10 to 20 μm; particles with a particle size of 22 μm or smaller obtained by a volumetric particle size distribution measurement is less than 1%; the magnetization intensity in a magnetic field of 1 KOe is 67 to 88 emu/g; and a difference of magnetization intensity between the scattered particles and the remainder in the magnetic field of 1 KOe is 10 emu/g or less. It means that the patent specifies the carrier for the electrophotographic developer which can prevent the carrier scattering and can provide the high-grade picture quality by using characteristics of the volumetric particle size distribution (volume median diameter (D50)), the average void size, and the magnetization characteristics.
Next, Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-357930) discloses a carrier for an electrophotographic developer, which shows an adequate flowability in a developing machine and on a sleeve without deposition in the machine, scattering of a toner and fogging. And it enables to obtain a high picture quality showing high image density and a superior repetition for narrow lines and dots for a long period of time. The carrier for the electrophotographic developer employs a carrier for an electrophotographic developer having specific characteristics that a fluidity index (F1) shown by the expression of “F1=AD×FR” is 63 to 75 sec/(50·cm3), and a fluidity index (F2) shown by the expression of “F2=AD×Hc” is 30 to 100 Oe·g/cm3. In addition, the Patent Document 2 discloses that saturation magnetization in an applied magnetic field of 3,000 Oe is preferably 20 to 45 emu/g. In Patent Document 2, AD represents apparent density (g/cm3), FR represents a flow rate (sec/50 g), and Hc (Oe) represents a coercive force. It means that in Patent Document 2, factors of the fluidity index, the apparent density, the flow rate, the coercive force, and the saturation magnetization is used for specifying the carrier for the electrophotographic developer.
Furthermore, object of Patent Document 3 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-235460) is to provide a ferrite carrier core material of an irregular shape, which has reduced electric resistance, large specific surface area, low density and long life. And the electrophotographic developer using the core material of the ferrite carrier enables to prevent a toner scattering, and can support up speed and colorization with high image density. In order to achieve the object, the Patent Document 3 adopts the core materials with irregular shapes of the ferrite carrier and 40% or more by the number of core materials have a rock type crystal sugar shape and/or an oyster shell shape, having a shape factor (SF−1=R2/S×π/4×100, wherein R represents a maximum length and S represents an area) of 140 to 250 with a distribution width (δ) of 60 or less. The Patent Document 3 also discloses other factors of apparent density, a specific surface area, an average particle size, saturation magnetization and resistance with the most suitable range for the respective factors. It means that in Patent Document 3, all of these specifying factors are used for specifying the carrier for the electrophotographic developer.
As described above, the specifying factors above have been generally used to specify a core material for a ferrite carrier for an electrophotographic developer of good quality. The specifying factors could generally show good performance.
However, the materials may sometimes not perform a quality aimed even when the respective core materials of the ferrite carrier qualify specific ranges of characteristics disclosed in respective Patent Documents. This is because that the core material generally has a deviation of the quality in a certain level as long as the core material of the ferrite carrier is an industrial product.
For instance, it is supposed that there are two types of products having definitely different surface states when particles of the core material of a ferrite carrier for the electrophotographic developer are observed with an electron microscope. In such a case, the two types of products can have almost the same characteristics of a volumetric particle size distribution (volume median diameter (D50)), an average void size and magnetization characteristics, which are the specifying factors used in Patent Document 1. In the case, a product that cannot achieve a purpose of Patent Document 1, preventing the carrier scattering and providing a high-grade picture quality may exist and is a disclosure of the quality deviation in the products.
There also be an actuality, for instance, that difference exists between the surface state of particles which can be judged from the image of the core material which is observed on the electrophotographic ferrite carrier by a scanning electron microscope and the surface state of particles which can be judged from specific surface area measured by a BET method. The above described specific surface area measured by a BET method is often used as an evaluation index for the surface state of the core material for the electrophotographic ferrite carrier. However, as a size of a particle is reduced, the dependency of specific surface area to the particle size tends to increase and specific surface area increases. On the other hand, bubbles and caves (parts considered not to be completely connected to surface) contained in particles of the core material for the electrophotographic ferrite carrier cannot be measured. Accordingly, the specific surface area measured by a BET method cannot be an index showing the state of pores in a bulk part of the core material for the electrophotographic ferrite carrier. Because a BET method to measure the specific surface area should be used for inspecting the specific surface area of a particle having 1 m2/g or larger, so the BET method has not sufficient accuracy for inspecting the particle such as the core material, having a comparatively small specific surface area. In addition, a volume median diameter (D50) measured by a laser diffraction scattering analysis method is an average value in a particle size distribution showing cumulative particle sizes of a certain volumes of particles. As a result, it may fluctuate largely depending on the accuracy of measurement for the particle size distribution. In contrast, an observed image by using a scanning electron microscope or an analysis method on the image can make us understand the surface state of each particle, but those method cannot make us judge the level of a surface property of the whole particles constituting a powder as the core material for the electrophotographic ferrite carrier.
As described above, it has been required to search additional specifying factors that enables to demonstrate the powder characteristics of the core material of the ferrite carrier more reliably and precisely other than the conventional specifying factors for the core material of the ferrite carrier used in the above described Patent Documents.